CTA security checks too short, random

November 09, 2004|By Jonathan Messinger, RedEye special contributor.

As much as I like to hope, it doesn't seem transportation issues swayed voters one way or the other in last week's election. Far away is the day that a presidential candidate's chances hang on the balance of their funding for mass transit. What's wrong with this country?

Still, as homeland security and competing foreign policies seem to have been most present in voters' minds, so it seems CTA security is of concern to riders. Our column a couple of weeks back about the CTA's security sweeps generated a few e-mails.

Riders who wrote in seemed to face the same dilemma: They didn't want their commute stretched too long by extensive searches, but the searches appeared too short to be effective.

Edgewater resident Byron Scott said each of the security sweeps he has witnessed happened around the same time at the same station. No guard or dog has ever boarded his car, and only once has he seen a guard or dog even walk by his window.

"The checks are not at all thorough," Scott said. "I've been on at least half a dozen trains that have stopped at Chicago for a security check, always the same station."

David Bayless, director of news affairs for Chicago Police, said the searches may appear to happen in the same places each day, but he assures us that the checks are fanned out all over the system.

"We're doing them in different locations in the city at different parts of the day," he said. "Some areas get more attention, but certainly we're doing them broadly."

Bayless said no arrests have been made as a result of a sweep.

Most of my riding comes during off-peak hours, so until last week, I hadn't been aboard a train that was stopped. But heading downtown on the Blue Line during rush hour, there was a brief delay while a sweep took place. We were held up for a little less than two minutes, and as far as I could see, the dogs were enjoying their walks.

Of course, it's a bit silly to complain of uneventful searches, when an eventful search means there's potential danger.

Thanks in part to the early hour, my fellow commuters seemed relaxed and unaffected by the delay. I'm sure the half-asleep commuters who got on early enough for a seat didn't mind the extra dream time.

Amy Dycus, however, echoed Scott's assessment. She said she is left curious in the morning when she sees the security officers and their canines patrolling the outside of the train car.

"I have never seen anyone, including the dog, get on the train and do any kind of investigating," she said. "So I, as I am sure plenty of others have, have been wondering what exactly they are doing."

Bayless said the searches may not appear thorough, but the crews are doing a good job of balancing the need to keep the system moving and checking the trains.

"We're doing this to be more visible," he said. "We're doing the checks and getting people where they need to go in a timely fashion."

While the officers are walking the platform, Bayless said, they're always looking in the trains for suspicious activity.

Suspicious activity is certainly a relative term. We've seen some activity on the CTA that could be classified as suspicious, but it's usually of the vomiting-morning-commuter or the proselytizing-preacher variety. Certainly, they are harrowing experiences, but not something that would raise the hackles of a security dog.